Like many, I like Simon Pegg, but an eyebrow went up when I heard his new comedy, Run Fat Boy Run, was directed by David Schwimmer.
At first my fears appeared justified. Processing the newspapers for the Library this morning, I noted the Sun-Times gave the film a bad review. (Although it should be noted that headlining that review “Run, don’t walk, from mindless comedy” isn’t helping establish a superior tone.)
But then I saw the full page, four color ad for the movie, full of screaming, approving blurbs. Sure, the Sun-Times didn’t like it, but look at the hosannas in the ad! And if you can’t trust…let me see here…KOSI 101 Denver, Mary Anne Bargen of REELZCHANNEL (see that clever thing they did with the ‘Z’?) and Peter Howell of the Toronto Star, well…WHO CAN YOU TRUST?!
The quotes themselves are quite convincing as well. KOSI 101 calls the movie “SHAUN OF THE DEAD MEETS WEDDING CRASHERS!” I’m can’t quite comprehend what that means, but it sounds great! Mary Anne Bergen, like the Sun-Times headline writer, drolly plays off the films title in her rave: “RUN, DON’T WALK, to see this heartfelt tale of endurance, love, and enough LAUGHS to carry you past the finish line.” Love and laughs?! Terrific! Meanwhile, Peter Howell promises that “Simon Pegg runs for laughs…as a date movie, YOU CAN’T BEAT IT!” I think he’s promising that even if the film isn’t very good, if you take a girl to see it she will sleep with you? Or am I misunderstanding what the phrase “a [great] date movie?”
All in all, it sounds super.
By the way, additional kudos to New York Times critic A. O. Scott for his review of Stop-Loss, the very first (or is it the twentieth? I can’t remember) mordant film examing the war in Iraq: “In some ways, there is a grim, accidental timeliness in the release of Stop-Loss, which focuses on the ordeal of American soldiers in and out of combat.” Yes, an “accidental timeliness.” Weird how this lone film (except for the 19 other ones) somehow managed to ‘accidentally’ come out during a war that remains unpopular with the staff and few remaining readers of The New York Times. Serendipity of the highest order!
Frank Lovece of the Film Journal International, meanwhile, notes the film “Makes you see the humanity and vulnerability of quick-fisted, gun-loving, jingoistic guys[…]a testament to the filmmakers’ own expansive sense of humanity. ” Finally, a film brave enough to admit that our soldiers are “quick-fisted, [gasp] gun-loving, jingoistic guy,” yet still artistically generous enough to allow that they have “humanity” (just like the filmmakers’ themselves, albeit that of our troops is perhaps not as “expansive”) and “vulnerability.” WHO KNEW?! Thanks, makers of Stop-Loss!
21, the “nerdy kids go to Vegas and live large and then get in trouble” picture is another entirely lame looking project starring Kevin Spacey. Seriously, get that guy another agent. Yeesh.
By the way, given the nearly uniformly badly reviewed slate of films out this week (Stop-Loss is the only film to stumble over the 50% positive mark, and the tone of the various review blurbs at Rottentomatoes indicates that political simpatico may have helped things along in that regard), it’s worth noting that Superhero Movie didn’t screen for critics. But then, why bother, really? Critics will hate it (with good reason, probably), but it will inevitably be the biggest movie this week, unless Horton Hears a Who wins again, although I doubt it will do so a third time. I don’t see why Superhero Movie, no matter how lame, wouldn’t follow in the financial footsteps of Epic Movie and the other similar films this company grinds out.
